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The Nexus and Beyond
The wall dissolved before our eyes.. as we turned away from the glare of the light hitting the Eye in the cave. The monk wrote a farewell note and stuck it in the ground with a dagger and prepared himself to enter the opening. I whispered to Varys and Enya, "That eye looks vaguely draconic." They murmured their agreement. We considered for a moment if we might be entering the lair of the strange winged shadow of a dragon we saw some time ago, but Ulfgar barrelled in oblivous of any reservations we may have had. The path sloped upward and we walked through the hour, perhaps even more until we saw a sky bright with stars. We had started at daybreak so the fact that it was night within a couple of hours was... odd to say the least. Klotar posited that we were not too high in altitude as the air was clear and breathable. In the distance we could see shadows that might be mountains in the distance or buildings nearby, who could say? A sea of mist obscured the ground ahead.We couldn't see where we came from anymore, only one or two steps around us - the mist pervaded any empty space that it could find. As we progressed, the ground seemed to be crystalline - the mist was now under what appeared to be a crystal bridge of sorts that we had stepped out onto. Klotar threw a javelin, which promptly bounced off. With numerous theories and amidst much speculation we moved toward a shadowy structure to see what we could see. The path we were on definitely had an edge and Varys flipped a coin down but we never heard it fall. The mist started to seem inconsequential as we neared a green light with arches covering it in some sort of open air structure. There was a glowing sphere that resembled a wizard-summoned light orb ensconced in a metal looking claw. It appeared that we would be able to remove the green light from the metal claw if we chose to. There were engravings that said something about 'showing the way forward.' As we were studying and discussing the potential and significance of the runes and engravings, which were something like "Glory be to Someo the master of the world between worlds", Ulfgar lifted the claw out of the ground. Combat ensued. Strength-draining shadows, which would prove to be resistant to physical as well as any form of damage other than psychic and undead, erupted out of... the shadows. We recalled from stories and song that elves had left the land because the mist had demagicked the place and the portals that once, long ago, had connected the cities. Three paths were revealed to us by the orb. We chose the easterly path. The path was rough & rugged. It began to descend down beneath the misty clouds, where it grew dark again. The passage narrowed and we reached a smooth wall. The light globe melted the door away as Ulfgar brought it close and torches appeared. The walls were aglow with the reflection of perhaps golden coins. A short, stalky pillar stood in the way. A pair of dark goggles that would fit a humanoid were on top of the pillar. I donned them. I looked cool... The chamber was quite large and filled with treasure. In the corners, Varys points out some green scales. The wall resolidified behind us. When Ulfgar drew the green orb closer to the wall, it grew dim and went out. Inspecting the wall, the party saw markings similar to those on the wall of the cave behind the waterfall. Wearing the goggles, I saw an eye looking at me. We theorized about Kamdur being the dragon that belonged to the green scales. I checked the eye closer and it appeared that it wasn't a form of surveillance that a dragon would assume. The cave was not abandoned, there are no telltale cobwebs. I stealthily made my way to a corner, grabbed a green scale and brought it back without setting off any alarms. The eye that had been looking at me wasn't really interested anymore once I was more than 15 feet away. It slowly became apparent that the eye was not an entity peering through. By posing it questions to which it blinked once for yes and twice for no, we discovered that the goggles could control the doorway and the eye was the magic that controlled it. This may mean we can use the goggles to open the wall in the cave behind the waterfall. Just in case, we had Ulfgar go outside the door and wait while I asked the door to open to see if it would do so again. The wall closed behind Ulfgar, and just as the eye appeared we heard wind gusts from the other side of the chamber ushering a potential dragon. 'Quick, Open!' I appealed to the eye. We ran through the door out of Kamdur's lair, past the Nexus (we did not collect 200 gold pieces), and slipped and slid down the Glassy Bridge to the Waterfall cave and lived to tell the tale another day. |'Starring:' }} | and Featuring: }} | Locations Visited: }}